The present invention relates to an image display device such as an electronic camera that records the pictures of objects one after another as image data on a recording medium such as a memory card.
Recently, a variety of electronic cameras have been developed. Most of them can convert the pictures of objects into image data, write each image data as a frame data in a frame memory and or write the image data into a file memory with character data such as date data added as required, and record the files on a recording medium such as a memory card.
On the other hand, with the recent rapid advances in semiconductor technologies, bulk semiconductor memories have been developed one after another. Consequently, the capacity of recording media used for electronic cameras is increasing year by year. And so is the amount of data, i.e., the number of data items that can be recorded on one recording medium.
If the number of image data items that can be recorded on one recording medium increases to such an extent as to eliminate the need to carry a spare recording medium, it is obvious that the ease-of-use of electronic cameras will be improved.
However, as a result of the increase in the number of image data items that can be recorded on a recording medium, the following problem has occurred.
An electronic camera has a display section to read and display recorded data. As the number of image data items that can be recorded on a recording medium increases, displaying recorded image data simply frame by frame in sequence will complicate the operation considerably and prolong the search time. Besides, displaying a large number of images will require the display section to be driven for an extended period of time, which in turn will result in waste of electric power.